Baby Thrifting!

From Sweet Chelsea a word on Thrifting for your kids!

I was all set to write this blog about something else and then I realized that my inspiration was sitting right in front of me!

CAMDEN!

Baby clothes are so expensive and they only wear them for a month or so! I have found some amazing things for my son. Granted, he is cute and will look cute in just about anything. I have found a few places to get some very cute outfits for a great deal.

Burlington Coat Factory is a great place to shop for amazing baby items, maternity, and bonus: post baby lovin! :)

(Whole outfit: Burlington Coat Factory $10)

(Hat: Burlington Coat Factory $3)
(Shirt & Shorts: Walmart $6.94)
(Cuteness: Priceless)

Freezing Cold Down By the Beach

So as y'all know, I've moved! But you wouldn't believe where I've moved too. It's one beautiful place.

Wanna know how beautiful? (And see one of my favorite outfits?)

Ok. Here you go.

Before you continue on, please note that when these pictures were taken I was feeling so sick I wanted to throw myself into the ocean... And that it was so windy I had to do an impromptu side ponytail. AND! It was ffffrrrreeeeeeeezzzzzzzziiiiinnnnngggggg. Thus the general hunched over appearance.

What you can't really see is that this skirt is amazing. Polka Dots AND Lace 

The water was sooooooo cold!

{Sweater: Thrifted}

{Skirt: Thrifted)

{Sweater: My husband's closet}

{Tree Necklace: I made it!}

Random Adventures

So the other day, Stephen and I had to go to the dealership to have our ( new) car checked out. (Did I mention we have a new car! Cause we do... YAY!) 

This dealership is like half an hour away from our house. Which is annoying, but livable. I mean, its not like I have to drive to the moon or anything. (I hate driving to the moon. It takes forever to get there, and there isn't much too look at.) But it was still a ways away. 

Well, on the way home Stephen said, "Hey look!" And suddenly veered off the road onto this little road that was surrounded by sand drifts. In some places you could hardly see the road for the sand. I was glad we had all wheel drive. After driving for a mile or so there was finally a little place to pull off to the side and park the car.

Now, it was a windy day. But you don't realize how windy until you are on the beach. It was WINDY.

But we still decided to have fun. In this little bay there were all sorts of boats docked, and a huge group (herd? flock? gaggle? family?) of sea otters just lounging around and playing.

We walked down the road and up a huge sand dune to see the ocean. I would have taken a picture, but it was so windy I coud hardly breathe, and the sand was flying everywhere and so it was more or less going to completely ruin electronics out there by the open sea. It was INSANE! But a ton of fun! I have never seen such angry and crazy water before....

Any whoo, here are some pictures of our adventure.

Aren't we cute?!

I feel like I am trying to pull of a "skater" look here or something. But it was just THAT windy!

View from inside the car

Another awesome hair moment

It was a nice little day together. It was a good way to kick off the weekend too because we went from our little beach adventure to seeing Men In Black 3 (highly recommend seeing it. I laughed so hard).

My Take on Thrifting

A long anticipated word from our very talented Bri!

I've never been a big "thrifter." I always thought it was just a place my grandma went to shop. Everything was from a different era and smelt like moth balls and dust. I just couldn't see how you could make anything cute from a thrift store? Little did I know back then....

Although, thrifting is a good way to save some money it's definitely a sport that takes some practice. Here are a few things I've learned about thrifting (also refere to "The Rules of Thrifting" at the top of the blog):

1. Take your time. If I'm ever feeling short on time, there is no way I will walk into a  thrift store. I immediately get overwhelmed. Take a day where you have nothing to do and anticipate that you may be in that store for some time and may not even walk out with anything. Patience.

2. Ignore the size (and smell). There have been many times that I've found a shirt or skirt that look huge but end up working. Belts are super trendy! If a shirt or dress is too loose around the waist, throw a belt around it and cinch it tight. Also, sometimes things can be altered easily. I'm not much of a sewer but safety pins come in handy a lot! ;) 

(This thrifted skirt was huuuge! But nothing a couple safety pins and a belt couldn't fix!)

3. Not everything is from your grandma. Yes, thrifted clothes are usually old ones that have been sitting in people's closets for years which result in largely out of date clothing items. But, this isn't always the case. Thank you to all of you fashionistas out there that throw away cute clothes when it's no longer in season. I've seen all sorts of good name brand clothes in thrift stores. You just gotta look!

(Scored this cute Old Navy blazer)

4. Have an open mind. Don't let the old clothes (and the massive amounts of them) overwhelm you. In the above picture with the skirt, I had to invision it paired with a cute outfit instead of being paired with all the other old lady skirts nearby. Invision yourself in the clothes with a cute pair of heels or accessories, instead of the stereotype it may portray. You can make anything cute! It's all the pieces together that make the outfit, not just the once piece. 

5. Try everything on. I mean everything. If there's even a hint of it possibly being cute, try it on. Some things may not be the cutest fabric, but could fit amazing and look great with a pair of jeans! You never know until you try. So try it on.

(This shirt looked large (refer to #2) and boring but had potential. It fit just snug enough around the waist that it ended up being the perfect shirt for this outfit and many more.)

So now I challenge you to do some thrifting. Dive right in! What harm can it do when it's rare to find anything over $8? 

xoxo

-Bri

A lesson well learned

In my extensive years as a gourmet cook.


Let's try that again.

Ahem.

In my many years of trying to be domestic.


Bother.

So, we all know that I've been trying this whole cooking thing. (Y'all know that. Right?) Well here is something I have learned that will not change your life. It probably won't rock your world. But it is good to know nevertheless.

So, here it is.

So Stephen and I went out and did errands today. We got home late, so I decided to do something quick for dinner. The answer, ravioli!

However, the water wasn't boiling fast enough (the whole watched pot thing...) So I resorted to what every home should have: an well otter pop stocked freezer.

So I was eating my popsicle when it came time to taste the spaghetti sauce. Only problem was, my popsicle was pink.

Why was this a problem? Well, for one it was a popsicle. My mouth was all cold. My poor tastebuds were frozen! I couldn't really taste much. And when I did, it tasted like pink otter pop.

Pink otter pop and spagetti sauce do not mix. At all.

Yuck.

So the lesson learned: maybe go with a different popsicle flavor when trying to stave off hunger. Or just don't mix popsicles with Italian food.

Dinner did taste pretty great though. Gotta love me som ravioli!

Adjusting

Hey guys.

I know it's been a while.

Again.

Sorry about that.

You see, I've been having trouble adjusting. You'd think that I would have this whole adjusting thing down. In fact, with the many moves and changes in my life you would think that I was quite the pro at adjusting.

I'm not. And it's hard to admit it through my clenched grin-and-bear-it toothy grimace-for-a-grin.

So many things hit me so quickly! Finals, Stephen's graduation, moving (I had one day to pack my house, and I spent the entire day with the stomach flu. It was a day of disasters and miracles. A day that seemed to be half me throwing up, half filled with incredible people and 3/4 filled with exhaustion.), unpacking and getting the worst chest cold I've ever had.

But you know what, I am with my husband once again.

You heard me.

STEPHEN IS HOME!

And, in the end, I guess it's all totally worth it. Sure I am in a new city that seems to always be cold. But the views are great! The beach is five minutes away! (only a crazier-person-than-me would attempt to get in that water though. It's so cold it'd freeze a corn dog right out of the fryer.)

Yeah I don't know anyone yet. But that's ok. I like new people. I'll make friends!

And sure, I'm a wee bit bored. I don't have a job and Stephen works all day. My house has never been cleaner. And I get to work on my creative endeavors (whatever they are...)

And! I get to be with my husband once again.

I can't tell you how incredible it is to actually know that at the end of the day, my husband is going to be walking through our door. Or that I don't have to worry about saying goodbye soon. He is here to stay! And I no longer have to sleep with one eye open in case anything happens in the night. I can fall asleep in the arms of the man who has promised to love and protect me for the rest of eternity. I will never again take for granted the security that comes from knowing that he is only 15 minutes away.

So, if you have the chance, go make sure you aren't taking the one person who makes the world go round for granted. You have them now. And you may have them forever. But you never know how long they will be in your present. So make enough memories now to last for the future, and build a past that can help you through whatever tomorrow might hold. You have today to say I love you, and forever to remember how it felt when you were embraced in their arms as they said, "I love you too."

Finding Finds when I Found a New Thrift Shop!

So I know it's been a lllloooooonnnnnngggg time. I'm sorry. But just wait until you hear why. You see, between Finals/ my husband graduation in AZ/ packing my house/ moving to California/ unpacking/ getting deathly ill and just trying to adjust I've just had a bit of a hard time getting some posts up.

But! I'm back! And, I finally had a chance to get my bearings. What does this mean? I went shopping!

Now, when I went out today I just needed to get out of the house. I dropped my husband off at work and went to the mall. I was planning on buying movie tickets (which I forgot to buy... And just bought online cause I really want to see that movie). Well I got distracted by the giant (and I mean giant) Forever 21 across the street. I went in looking for a purse. I tried on 4 or 5 things (only fell in love with one of them, but just couldn't justify buying it).

And then it hit me. I am living in a new, rather affluent area. It was time to go to my native turf. It was time to find a thrift store.

And, thanks to google maps, I did just that! I found myself a nice little Goodwill. And, for the price of that one dress I got a floor mat, a pair of shoes, a dress, two shirts and a skirt. I kid you not.

But it didn't happen by magic. Want to see how many things went into the dressing room with me?

You can't tell, but that's like 14 different things.

Remember how I said that you have to try on a lot of things sometimes to find those thrift store treasures. (Don't remember me saying that? Then you might want to read up on some thrifting rules.)

The rejects.

The Finds!

I can't wait to show you what I found! I have a few awesome finds I can't wait to show you. And one project dress that is going to be something pretty amazing when I'm done with it.

Thanks for all your patience! I can't wait to continue our adventures. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

If you want to share your thrift store finds go ahead and post them to my Facebook page.